1. Field
The invention is in the field of displays giving the appearance of or representing trees and particularly giving the appearance of a Christmas tree. Thus, the field includes the field of artificial Christmas trees.
2. State of the Art
There are many types of artificial Christmas trees currently available, some with built-in lights or light displays. There are also Christmas tree light sets and ornaments that generate bubbles in a tube full of fluid. Further, there are large displays that include bubble tubes and bubble walls where bubbles rise through fluid in such tubes and walls. However, applicants are not aware of any Christmas trees or other display trees which themselves incorporate a bubble display as part of the tree itself.
According to the invention, a tree display, such as an artificial Christmas tree although the tree display could be used for other occasions such as a Valentine tree, Easter tree, etc., has a trunk formed from a hollow tube configured to hold a liquid, such as water, therein. A base holds the tube in a substantially vertical position on a surface, such as a floor, table, or cabinet. An air supply means is located in the tube, preferably at or near the bottom of the tube, for supplying air to the tube to form bubbles in the liquid when in the tube. The air supply means can conveniently be an aquarium air supply which provides a stream of bubbles to the liquid. The air outlet of the air supply is located in the bottom of the tube with an air supply hose extending through the bottom of the tube to an air pump located outside the tube. It is also convenient to provide a drain hose extending through the bottom of the tube with the air supply hose. A drain valve in the drain hose selectively opens and closes the drain hose outside the tube so the tube can be conveniently drained when desired.
Preferably an illumination means, such as a light fixture, is positioned in the base to shine light onto and into the bottom of the tube. The light can be colored in various ways to create a desired display effect.
A plurality of branch means are mounted on the hollow tube and extend outwardly from the tube to represent tree branches and/or as a support for foliage means which is supported by the branch means to give the display the appearance of a tree. The branch means may be lengths of substantially rigid rods each with a mounting end bent substantially perpendicular to a substantially rigid branch portion. The mounting ends are removably inserted into mounting sleeves secured around the hollow tube with similar orientation to the hollow tube. The rods extend outwardly from the hollow tube (tree trunk) in preferably a helical pattern with the upper rods being shorter than the lower rods to give a pine tree shape. With the substantially rigid rods, a Christmas tree can be formed by securing an artificial pine or spruce foliage garland to the ends of the rods so the garland begins at the top of the tree and spirals in helical fashion from the top of the tree around the hollow tube to the bottom of the tree with the tree getting wider top to bottom. The garland may be formed with ornaments and lights built into the garland.
With the above-described specific construction, the tree can be stored by removing the branches from the hollow tube trunk, starting at the bottom, and placing them in a helical mound or stack in a storage box or other container.